Blish,James – And all the Stars a Stage

postures of ferociousness, look now to have been nothing but whistling past

an obvious graveyard-an illimitable one, but all the same a graveyard.”

“That may mean something,” Dr. Chase-Huebner said, “or it may be just

oratory.”

“I’m not the orator type, as you know full well after all these years. Look

at the facts. We proceeded from the start from an assumption-maybe a buried

assumption, but all the same it was there-that we might be able to take

over an inhabited planet by force. Back then, we had the temerity to think

that we might find a world resembling the Akimisov Empire, big, rich and

pre-scientific, that we could push over with determination and a few hand-

grenades.

“The real fact of our existence, as these equations prove-I’m not so

cautious as Dr. Kamblin-is that our whole armada is nothing but a small

guerrilla

164 fames Blish

force of nomads, advancing steadily farther into the heartland of cultures

far older and bigger than ours. Most of the races that we meet there will

probably be able to blow us all away, with nothing more than a buff or two

of surprised contempt.”

‘Or swallow us up,” Ailiss said surprisingly. “Jorn, if you don’t mind,

perhaps we ought to pause here for a debate on the desirability of being

swallowed by a more advanced culture?”

“I’ve already been swallowed once,” Jorn said grimly. “So have we all, and

here we sit in the bowels of that very whale. I’m frank to say that the

novelty has worn off, and I’m not anxious to be swallowed again by

something whose very nature I can’t even guess.”